Creating a full scale TV channel would require massive investments necessary for purchasing different broadcasting equipment, content, and fees for government permissions/licenses, not to mention the required staff and the required technical expertise. Basically, to create a TV channel, one would be concerned primarily about three main things, namely an appropriate multimedia-delivery infrastructure, content to stream, and audience for the channel. Regarding the multimedia delivery infrastructure, different network types could be considered; with the Internet being the most popular due to the ever growing community of users. Regarding content, there is a wide library of video media available to consumers. This content could be videos available at movie rental companies such as Netflix, HuluPlus and Blockbuster; broadcast television programs; cable or satellite television programs; and user-contributed videos such as those available at online video content providers such as YouTube, Dailymotion, etc. The audience of a channel defines a social network, i.e., a group of users with potential interest in viewing the channel content. Currently, there are many platforms available for forming social networks; popular ones include Facebook, LinkedIn, Hi5, Friendster, My YearBook, Mixi, etc.
Current video services are being delivered either on a plurality of broadcast/cable/satellite channels or at online video content providers. In case of the latter, video services are either provided singularly in the style of video/clip on demand, or in the form of playlists (e.g., WorldTV, YouTube's Leanback service). In either case, due to the high number of available channels and content, a user may spend a long time searching for a video title that could be of interest.